Michael Giberson Peter Behr, reporting for ClimateWire in an article online at the New York Times, captures some of the discussion surrounding the recent NERC report on integrating renewable power to the transmission grid [NERC Press Release] [NERC Executive Summary] [Full NERC Report]. The vast expansion of wind and solar power planned by the Obama …
Michael Giberson Chris Davis, at PowrTalk, asks, “What if power companies became more like banks?” Maybe the idea seems a little scary, especially with the way some banks have performed lately, but if it scares you then you are missing the point. Here is more: When electricity comes from distributed renewables, there is less for …
Michael Giberson Occasionally we hear from readers curious about the blog name, “knowledge problem.” Edmund Phelps explains the knowledge problem in an excellent essay that appeared in the Financial Times. (Registration may be required for FT.com; the essay is also posted in full at the FT‘s Capitalism blog.) Joseph Schumpeter’s early theory proposed that a …
Michael Giberson In New York, a debate over the NYISO market design initiated by a report by Robert McCullough and committee hearings in the state legislature. The initial McCullough report asserted that the NYISO’s use of a uniform clearing price auction (the report calls it a “market-clearing price auction”, but “uniform clearing price” is technically …
Flawed Report, Subsequent Debate Should Advance Understanding of Nyiso Market Read More »
Michael Giberson Cogeneration plants, which use a fuel source to produce both electric power and useful heat, can be very efficient projects. Whether particular projects are efficient will depend on the implementation, of course, and whether projects are profitable will depend on fuel and other costs and the revenues from selling power and heat. From …
Michael Giberson The Houston Chronicle has an article on a proposal to set up a federally-chartered bank to lend billions of dollars to renewable energy projects. Renewable energy ‘green bank’ idea takes root By TOM FOWLER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle A coalition of energy companies hopes to reinvigorate the market for funding renewable energy projects …
Michael Giberson A development company in Florida has announced plans for what is being called an “all solar powered” city. The developer doesn’t quite say it that way, but comes close on the Babcock Ranch website: Raising the initiative of a sustainable, environmentally sensitive, green community to new heights, Babcock Ranch is the first city …
Michael Giberson From Environmental Capital, reports that selling all greenhouse gas emission permits under a cap-and-trade scheme may not be politically attractive: Europe already saw what happened when it gave away emissions permits—utilities gobbled up more than 100 billion euros in windfall profits. The pain for the consumer—i.e., the voter–will be the same whether the …
Michael Giberson Yesterday on the front page of the Wall Street Journal was a report of cyber-attacks on electric utility systems. Computerworld gives this overview of the story. Cheryl Morgan provides a run down of some of the issues, including whether development of a smart grid will increase or decrease the vulnerability of transmission infrastructure …
Michael Giberson At the Gulf Coast Power Association meetings last week in Houston, Jay Caspary of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) was discussing transmission expansion plans, and at slide 20 offered a map showing the overlapping transmission plans of SPP and ERCOT. The purple lines are proposed 765 kV lines in SPP, the red lines …
Overlapping Transmission Grids in West Texas Will Give Power Plants the Power to Choose Read More »
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